21 fun ideas for social media posts
It’s a new year and that means it’s time to think up some ideas of new content to share on social media!
The most successful brands on social media are those that create a strategy and content calendar ahead of time to make sure every single piece of content shared on social works with the other posts and has the 80/20 balance brands should be focusing on.
Just a reminder: The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your content should be educational, informational, or entertaining, and the other 20% can be promotional. Now, keep in mind that your own content, like blogs and ebooks can be considered in that 80% category as long as they’re not hard sales.
But even the most prepared social media manager hits a wall or isn’t feeling inspired by the content available to them and their audience could be tiring of seeing the same type of posts over and over, eventually hurting the brand’s social media engagement metrics.
No problem! I’ve come up with a list of 21 fun ideas for social media posts in 2021 to get the creative juices flowing.
As you go through this list of social media post ideas, keep in mind your own branding standards and your brand’s personality and voice. You’ll want to make sure these posts fit your brand and seem natural. If your branding is more formal and suddenly you’re on TikTok showing off your interns’ dance moves, people might not react the way you want them to.
Let’s see what you can add to your social media calendar this year!
What to share on social media in 2021
1. Blog posts or sponsored content
Obviously you’ll want to share your own content! You put a lot of time, effort, and resources into creating your own content so you’ll want to ensure you’re promoting it on social (and not just once, either). You should also share your sponsored content as it looks like it’s coming from a different source and provides a bit more credibility to your content.
You can also link to gated content or signup pages, like for email newsletters.
2. Videos
Video content is extremely popular on social media and your videos can be educational or entertaining to engage your audience. Maybe you share a quick how-to, or go behind the scenes at an event or webinar presentation, or maybe you follow TikTok’s lead and do a team choreographed dance. Whatever you do, just make sure it fits your branding and is content your audience will want to see.
3. Countdowns
Generate excitement over a new product or service launch, an event, or the sending of your company’s newsletter by counting down to it on social media and providing a little teaser. Maybe you share a graphic detailing the top three things people can expect to learn at your educational session at an upcoming conference. Or maybe you show a quick video comparing your new product to the old and drop hints of when it’ll be available for purchase.
This one will take coordination with your product or sales teams to ensure everyone is on track for a timely delivery. Nothing is worse than promising a new product and getting people excited to have to keep pushing the launch date back. Eventually people will tire of your enthusiasm for it and won’t bother engaging with those kinds of posts. Be sure you can deliver on your promise before inviting your audience to count down the clock with you.
4. Company milestones or anniversaries
Just get your one millionth subscriber? Share it! Just celebrated two years of going public? Tell everyone about it! Celebrate your company’s anniversaries and milestones on social media to build up your brand’s reputation and prove your brand’s value in the eyes of your followers. You could even do a series of fun facts that lead you to this milestone or tie some kind of contest into it where customers can get discounts or free swag.
5. Industry news
Visit your favorite trade publications or industry magazines’ websites and share the articles and news pieces. On social media you can add your own commentary or thoughts on the news and encourage your followers to share their two cents on the news.
6. Industry research
Industry associations are well-known for doing research and benchmarking reports, and this is great content to share on social media – even if it’s gated! You could also get your own copy of the report, create an infographic blog on some key findings and then link to the report from your website to drive traffic through you first.
7. Influencer content
Share an industry influencer or business partner’s content on social media to show that you’re listening to other brands and on top of industry trends. Sharing influencer content on a regular basis can help you establish a relationship now instead of trying to butter them up if and when you decide to try influencer marketing.
8. Event or webinar announcements
Sending sales reps or an executive to a conference or networking event? Tell your social media audience about it and tell them how they can get tickets! If you’re an exhibitor, you often get a discount code that you might want to share with your social audience to reward them for following you.
9. Live from…
Go behind the scenes at a conference or just in the office, or hype up a product launch by using live video. Live video is fun because it’s natural and authentic. Just make sure you have someone who’s personable and energetic running the show to get people engaged with the livestream.
10. Job postings
Share job postings with your social media following as you never know if the perfect candidate is already following you! Play up your company’s culture, benefits, and why it’s a great opportunity to come work for your brand.
11. Employee spotlights
Introduce your fans to your employees and make your employees feel recognized by giving them their time to shine on social media. This is another way you can authentically share your brand’s story by having employees use their own words to say why they like what they do and why they enjoy working for your brand.
Employee spotlights add a human element to your company as we all know there are real people behind each company, it’s different when we see their faces and learn about their personal experiences. Plus, you can expect good engagement on these types of posts as the employee’s friends and family will probably like, comment, or share these posts.
12. Leadership interviews
When highlighting the leadership team, you might want to focus on a thought leadership perspective and where they see the industry and company going in the future. You could film one big interview with your CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, or CMO and break it up into quick clips that can easily be shared and viewed on social media.
13. Employee events
Does your company set aside time for teambuilding, volunteering, or raising money for charity? Share that on social media and explain why these employee initiatives are important to your brand. Are there causes your company or leaders are passionate about? Talk about them or share their content with your followers.
14. Customer testimonials
Take a quote from a customer and turn it into a graphic to share on social media. It’s brand-centric but it’s not coming from you. User-generated content is a great way to reaffirm your brand’s messaging without sounding too self-centered. You can also do this by requesting permission from the original content owner and sharing a cool photo from Instagram or Facebook.
15. Customer support quick tips
Ask your customer support reps for FAQs and the best, short answers that you can share on social media. This can be in plain text, graphic form, GIF, or even a quick video with a customer service rep if you want to make it a regular part of your social media posting mix.
16. Fun facts or pop quizzes
Share statistics, a “on this day in history,” or even have a pop quiz for your audience to test their knowledge or let them learn something new about your company, industry, or even the world in general. To get more engagement you might consider small incentives, like free swag or a small discount on their next purchase to get followers to participate in a pop quiz-style post.
17. Holidays (even the silly ones)
Many brands recognize and celebrate the big holidays but why ignore some of the fun holidays that work perfectly with your brand? There’s practically a day for everything now, National Coffee Day, World Chocolate Day, Cheese Lovers Day, Siblings Day, Puppy Day, Book Lovers Day, and the list goes on and on.
Even though they’re not real holidays, they can make for fun social media posts, like having your employees share photos of their pups on National Puppy Day, or recommending a good book on Book Lovers Day.
There are easy wins in these crazy holidays, but don’t overdo it and celebrate every little one. Make sure it makes sense with your brand and the content your audience expects.
18. Inspirational quotes
Who doesn’t need a dose of motivation now and then? Share it with your followers by creating graphics with inspirational quotes from industry influencers, your leadership team, business partners, or even prominent figures in history. Triple check you have the quote and person credited with the quote correct before sharing the image.
19. Questions/polls
Learn more about your audience and give them the chance to steer the conversation by asking questions or casting a poll. This could be used to figure out what kind of content they want to see from your brand in the future, what features would be beneficial to them from a product standpoint, or get a pulse on a trend you’ve got your eye on.
20. Memes
Be in on the joke with your followers by sharing appropriate memes. Keyword there was appropriate. Look into the history of the meme and its origination and how to correctly use the meme before pushing these live. Once you know you’re in the clear and have a good idea on how to be in on the joke, go ahead and have fun with your following.
21. A playlist
Spotify allows anyone to create a playlist that can be shared and you could create one for the holidays, have a playlist comprised of songs that pump up your executives, use songs that go well with your industry, or even poll your audience and then put the most popular song choices on the playlist.
Are you trying anything new on social media this year? Share your ideas in the comments below or tag me on Twitter!
